Slow or choppy performance when editing video

There are a lot of variables when it comes to the overall good performance of your computer - especially when editing video. Video is one of the most processor intensive things you can use your computer for. While having a top notch video card and copious amounts of RAM are great first steps to ensure a great video editing experience with Roxio products, here are some basic troubleshooting steps to put things into perspective and try.

Restart the computer

If you are adding an effect or have been working a particularly complex project, rebooting will clear the RAM of your computer freeing up memory and processing. Just be sure to save your project before rebooting!

You project is too large

If your project is made up of multiple large clips with many edits each, you may want to decrease the session size by creating a separate project for each large file, perform your edits, then merge the edited files from the separate projects into a new "master" project. This will reduce memory load and allow you to easily make changes only to certain segments without putting your whole production at risk of corrupting.

Make sure that your computer meets the recommended system requirements

We offer the minimum system requirements for thing like burning data, audio, and backing up your computer as well as the recommended system requirements for editing and playing back video. Working with HD video (for Blu-Ray and AVCHD) will require more system resources.

Defragment your hard drive

This will allow larger files that you have created to be more easily read by the program and allow more efficient writing of data for video and audio capture to your hard drive.

In the Disk Defragmenter window, select the drive (a.k.a. volume) you wish to defragment.

Note the Free Space column. If you have less than 10% free space available you may run into issues defragmenting. Additionally, the drive is too full to capture any new media to it. Doing so may result in the hard drive crashing and data loss. Unless more free space can be safely made, it is recommended that you purchase an additional hard drive just for your multi-media projects.

Click the Defragment button.

NOTE: If frequently using your computer for recording and editing audio and video, defragmenting your hard drive on regular basis (about once a month) is recommended.

Update your Roxio software

Roxio has a complete list of the latest patches and updates for your software at our Software Updates page.

Update your video drivers

Many times video card manufacturers offer updates that can improve the performance of your video card.

To find out what video card you need to update, just follow the steps below:

Windows XP:Click on START then select RUN, you can also open the RUN by pressing the Windows key and letter "R" at the same time.

Windows Vista/7:Click on START then on the SEARCH box type "dxdiag" and click on the OK or the ENTER key on your keyboard.

On th DirectX Diagnostic tool screen, click the Display tab then take note of your Device Name and Manufacturer.

You can access the drivers by visiting your computer manufacturer's website or by going to the video card manufacturer's website directly.

Disable unnecessary processes

Many people don't realize how many items their computer has running the background. Disabling start up items frees up your computer's, and in some cases, your videos card's, RAM for editing video. Disabling start processeswill help active this. If you are unsure what many of those processes are, you can always enter them in a search engine to find out what they do.

To disable start up items, just follow the steps below:

Windows XP:Click on START then select RUN, you can also open the RUN by pressing the Windows key and letter "R" at the sametime.

Windows Vista/7:Click on START then on the SEARCH box type "dxdiag" and click on the OK or the ENTER key on your keyboard.

On the MSCONFIG screen, select the Startup tab over on the right side.

Take note on which items are checked, and then click the Disable All button in the lower right corner of the screen.

Click on the APPLY button and then click on OK.

Click YES when asked to restart the computer.

After rebooting, you may receive a message saying "You have used the 'System Configuration Utility' to make changes to your system....". If you get this message, simply place a checkmark in a box on the lower left side titled, "Do not show me this message again" and click the OK button.

Note: To reverse these changes, relaunch msconfig place the checkmarks back in the boxes based on the notes you made. For optimal performance, only Anti-Virus or Firewall software should be enabled (for this test all should be disabled).

Switch to hardware rendering

In hardware mode, the application uses the video card. This results in better performance and quality; however, this mode may not be supported by all video cards, and requires more video memory. Software mode is slower, and may support fewer effects and transitions. To determine whether your video card supports hardware mode, click Graphics Test....

To switch between software and hardware rendering:

Open Videowave then go to TOOLS selecting OPTIONS...

Under "Render using:", click Graphics Test.... This will begin a graphics test on your screen.

If your video card is compatible with VideoWave, then it will automatically choose Hardware for default rendering.

Adjust hardware acceleration

Too much acceleration isn't always a good thing as it may reduce processing power you need to improve video performance.

Windows XP:

Right-click on the Desktop and select Properties.

Click the Settings tab in the Display Properties window.

Click the Advanced button.

Click the Troubleshoot tab.

Use the slider to lower the acceleration. It's recommended that you only lower on increment at a time and relaunch your Roxio software to see if the problem has been corrected.

Windows Vista/7

Right-click on the Desktop and select Personalize.

Click Display Settings.

Click the Advanced Settings button in the Display Settings window.

Click the Troubleshoot tab.

Use the slider to lower the laceration. It's recommend that you only lower on increment at a time and relaunch your Roxio software to see if the problem has been corrected.

Increase the priority of your Roxio software

You can allocate more processing power to your Roxio application by setting a higher priority for it in Windows Task Manager.

To increase priority to your Roxio Software, just follow these steps:

Launch your Roxio application.

Press "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" on the keyboard. This will open Task Manager. (Vista will launch the Windows Security window where you will have to select the Task Manager button).

Select the Processes tab.

Locate the Roxio application (videowave11.exe, for example).

Right-click on Roxio application and select Set Priority.

In the Set Priority menu, try selecting Above Normal or High.

Once the change is made it will prompt a warning asking if you are sure you want to change the priority class. Select Yes to this. If there is any undesirable change, simply change the priority back to Normal.